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Satay in TST & Gary in Macau

I seem to always have this minimum one-week lag on blogging what I’ve been doing. So here is a recount of last weekend. Some of these photos (evidently the better quality ones) are credit to Danny. Last Friday we went to Tsim Sha Tsui to have some Good Satay based on an OpenRice (which is like BlogTO Restaurants for HK) recommendation.

GOOD, not great.

They had about 5-6 dishes that were very very popular. We decided to split 3 of them: the Hainanese Chicken, assorted satay meat skewers, and the fried turnip cake.

The chicken and skewers were both pretty good. The chicken was tender, and the satay sauce was flavourful. However, I was rather disappointed in the serving sizes – I thought one dish could eat like a meal for one person, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

Fried turnip cake

The fried turnip cake was good at first bite. After you eat about 2 chunks, it became kind of disgusting and feels akin to shoving over-seasoned glue in your mouth. Ironically, this dish was rather large, and can really fill you up. So basically the restaurant’s name is a fairly accurate description of their food: good but not great. After dinner we just wandered around TST for some shopping.

The Charlie Brown Café. Need to check it out some time.

I don't know what this was (hotel? club?) but it was pretty. And had reindeer decorations.

Hong Kong: Keepin' it classy

The next day we were off to Macau for a Gary Cao concert at the Venetian. If you don’t know who Gary Cao is, don’t feel bad, because 80% of people here didn’t know who he was either. But then they usually have an ‘OOOHHHHHH THAT GUY’ moment when you hum this song. Or this one. The concert and return ferry tickets were only HKD368 so I think we got a pretty good deal, considering ferry alone is around HKD300. After finding the terminal, which was a feat on its own, we hopped on the CotaiJet ferry and arrived in exactly one hour.

Off to Macau!

Ferry was impressive; had airplane-like seating

All of the Macau ferry terminals have complimentary shuttle buses run by the casinos, to their respective venues. The local economy is supported very heavily by the Cotai Strip, and features many of the same hotel/casino chains as the Las Vegas Strip. We took a shuttle bus to the Sands, and started our journey from there. First we explored the Fisherman’s Wharf, which had mini-replicas of recognizable international locations. It was strangely deserted, but it was nice that way.

The Sands casino is situated right next to Fisherman's Wharf

Mini Roman Colesium

Mini Potala Palace - the Dalai Lama's residence

And a bit of Beijing. They had a lot of colourful koi in the moat.

We then taxied to Senate Square and apparently that’s where all the people were. It was insanely crowded, even more so than I had ever seen Hong Kong (until the Flower Market, but more on that later).

Senate Square, decorated for the Lunar New Year, and PEOPLE!!

Pork chop bun for lunch - popular Macanese fare

We made our way to the remains of St. Paul’s church – the famous Jesuit church that burnt down, leaving only its front frame.

St. Paul's church

You can explore a bit behind the church, where you’ll find a mini museum, and I kid you not, a crypt. They actually call it a crypt. Beside the attraction, there was also a park we walked around. Of course, you can’t go to Macau without having one of their famous Portuguese egg tarts. It’s important to note that you should only buy them fresh from Kui Kee bakery. We bought one elsewhere and it tasted like the dry, powdery ones we have back home.

*Cue angel chorus*

After that we went around to more casinos. First stop, the Lisboa.

It looks like a gigantic shiny pomegranate

Lisboa Hotel lobby. This is what my future house will look like, thanks for asking.

Next up, the Wynn

It had a weak, cheesy fountain show, as a tribute to the one at Bellagio Las Vegas

There was a sweeeeeet outdoor pool area which we weren't baller enough to access. (The ceiling lights are a reflection from inside.)

After the Wynn, it was almost concert time, so we headed to the Venetian.

Picked up tickets for GARRRYYYYY!

Grabbing a quick dinner at the Venetian food court. The ceiling/'sky' is synthetic.

Pork chop & spaghetti in broth or something? It was YUMMY.

Anticipating GARRRYYYYY

Pumped up GARRRYYYYY

Subdued GARRRYYYYY

Gary’s concert was really just “meh” for me. He didn’t really do many memorable things, but then again I didn’t really pay much for the concert ticket. He sang all his hits, fake-cried during emotional parts, invited the most random chick as a guest performer whose name I don’t remember, had a sexy dance where two girls made out for a ballad which made no sense, did some impersonations of Andy Lau, and talked in Cantonese most of the time so I couldn’t really understand what he was saying.

Some bar in the Venetian casino area. Curved escalators on the sides!! WHEEE!!!

The Venetian's canal with gondolas, much like the one in Vegas. The juxtaposition of an Italian theme with Chinese shops all decorated for the Lunar New Year kind of throws you off.

After exploring the Venetian thoroughly, we came across this dude who was stacking cards. He’s apparently made many famous structures with cards, and was currently working on one of the Venetian. He was in a glass display that couldn’t have been more than 15′ x 10′, which I thought was rather inhumane.

Bryan Berg's work-in-process

We had about another hour to burn before catching our ferry back, so we swung by an Irish pub to grab some snacks and drinks, then headed back to Hong Kong. It was then that I noticed how much HK smells. You get used to it, but when you come from Macau (which doesn’t smell at all), the odour is rather noticeable. Pooped from a fulfilling day, we cabbed back from the terminal because it was 2am and no buses were running.

Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a (somewhat belated) Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Chinese New Year, and GO TEAM CANADA!